Google needs Twitch to get to gamers

According to reports,
YouTube -- the web giant's online video arm -- is poised to spend
$1 billion (£600 million) on Twitch, a streaming internet service
that lets people share videos of games they play on consoles like
the Microsoft Xbox and the Sony PlayStation -- and watch such
videos posted by others. This is a play for more online video -- an
effort to expand the reach of YouTube -- but it's also another sign
that Google wants to get its hooks into the gamers who spend so
much of their time not at their computers but in front of their
televisions.

In one sense, the deal can significantly expand the reach of
YouTube's video empire. As
of the end of 2013, Twitch said that its service is used by 45
million people. With Twitch, YouTube -- and its ads -- can reach
more eyeballs. "Twitch extends YouTube's ability to deliver [a]
'superbowl-sized audience' of young men to advertisers every day of
year," former YouTube executive Hunter Walk wrote
on Twitter.

But this deal can also help Google gain a firm hold in the world
of gaming consoles, something that the company is apparently
exploring on multiple levels. News reports have Google preparing
its own game console, based on its Android mobile operating system.
Twitch would be another way of bridging the gap between this living
room hardware and the web giant's existing internet services, and
it would give the company a new path onto competing gaming consoles
such as the Xbox and the PlayStation.

Google is, at heart, a company that sells advertising. And game
players are catnip for advertisers: They skew
young, averaging 31 years old. They're legion, putting consoles
in 51 percent of U.S. homes. And they're often deeply engaged with
their screens, playing long sessions and sharing their experiences
with other people, through multiplayer games and via online social
channels, as well as through video services like Twitch.

That's why Google wants not only Twitch, but its own living room
game console. And if the Twitch deal goes through, it can marry the
two. Plus, it can, in a way, more tightly integrate YouTube with
the console where Twitch is already available: Microsoft's Xbox One
and Xbox 360; Sony's PlayStation 4; and Ouya, an independently
developed Android console. (Google declined to comment on the
Twitch reports or what possible role the company's tech might play
in its future.)

Today, Twitch lets you upload previously recorded game videos to
YouTube. But if it also moved Twitch's live streaming videos onto
YouTube, it could more tightly plug its video services into the
world's televisions. Google already does this with its Chromecast
TV dongle. But that's just a start. It wants a hand in both
television and gaming.